The political logic behind National’s proposed GCSB reforms.
This weekend there will be national protests against the National government bills amending the 2003 GCSB and 2004 TICS Acts. Although the protests have garnered broad support across the political...
View ArticleTransitional Dilemmas.
Military-bureaucratic authoritarian regimes often seek to legitimate their rule and establish a positive legacy by transferring power to elected civilian authorities. However, they do so only under...
View ArticleForeign Policy after the Election.
Lost amid the distractions of royal visits, Mananet Party circus side-shows and assorted other peripheral issues has been the subject of NZ foreign policy after the September 2014 election. The topic...
View ArticleEye Candy, Window Dressing and Deep Pockets.
I came back from six weeks abroad to see the beginning of the Internet Party’s “Party party” launches. It leaves me with some questions. It seems that what the Internet Party has done is this. Using...
View ArticleA Brief Guide to Voting.*
For those who remain undecided about where their voting preferences lie, allow me to offer this brief guide. If you are an urban hipster, video game geek or under 20 who likes to yell “F*** you” a...
View ArticleLeft in tatters.
A while back I wrote a post arguing that the NZ Left was in serious disarray. Various Left pontificators fulminated from the depths of their revolutionary armchairs against my views, denouncing me for...
View ArticleBlog Link: Could Fiji Emulate Singapore?
Although we in NZ have been preoccupied with our own national election, Fiji had one a few days earlier that arguably is far more important when it comes to that country’s long-term prospects. Much...
View ArticleGo The Donald!
I am lucky to be able to vote in the US as well as NZ, and very much relish the opportunity in both countries. In the US I am registered as a voter in Florida, which is a closed primary state. “Closed”...
View ArticleToo Clever.
The TPPA signing came and went, as did the nation-wide protests against it. I did not think that the government was going to be swayed from publicly commemorating what it considers to be the crown...
View ArticleDefensive voting and split tickets.
As part of the ongoing effort to clarify some aspects of the US elections this year, this post focuses on two tactics: defensive voting and ticket splitting. Some readers may already be familiar with...
View ArticleIt is not about the monkey, it is about the machine.
In the late 1980s I found myself sitting at a research institute in Rio de Janeiro pondering the sad fact that George H.W. Bush (aka Bush 41) had just been elected president. This was a guy who sat...
View ArticleKey exits right (on time).
So, John Key decided to resign rather than lead his government into an election for a fourth term. Some amongst the opposition are gloating and speculating about the reason why. As someone who did not...
View ArticleLetters from America, take five: Trump’s midterm election strategy.
After weeks of crisis and scandal, Donald Trump was cut a break by Hurricane Harvey. Several million people’s pain provided him with some temporary relief from the DC presure cooker, if not a small...
View ArticleFrom watermelons to algae.
For the first time since 2002 I will not be giving my party vote to the Green Party. Nor will I give my electorate vote (in Helensville) to its candidate. The rush to privilege personality over...
View ArticleDo the Greens have a candidate vetting problem?
12 weeks after the election the Green Party’s 14th ranked candidate in 2017 opts out of politics and joins a morning television program. Shortly after the election it is discovered that one of their...
View ArticlePolitical Market Clearing.
As I watched the results come in on US midterm election night, it struck me that the tally was a microcosmic distillation of what democracy is in terms of preferred outcomes: no one gets everything...
View ArticleMedia Link: Some Bolivian and NZ post-election analysis on “A View from Afar.”
This last week’s podcast featuring Selwyn Manning and I focused on post-election analysis in two small states, one land locked and the other surrounded by water. Check it out here.
View ArticleWhen the dictator wears capes.
Today Chileans voted overwhelmingly to elect a constitutional assembly and redraft the 1980 Constitution promulgated by the dictatorship of Agusto Pinochet. I regret that my old friend Bob Barros,...
View ArticleMedia Link: “AVFA” on electoral politics in Brazil, US and Israel.
This week Selwyn Manning and I do a post-mortem on Brazil’s election and a preview of the US midterms under the general banner of “it is about the movement, not the man,” then turn to the tactical and...
View ArticleVoting as a multi-order process of choice.
Recent elections around the world got me to thinking about voting. At a broad level, voting involves processes and choices. Embedded in both are the logics that go into “sincere” versus “tactical”...
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